Reply #34: If one's contact with ordinary people is limited to....

[Smarmie Doofus]

... nannys, household servants and the like, one is likely to have an understanding of average people that is, shall we say, *limited*. (Compound that with the *extremely* sheltered life that was imposed on her by her post- 1963 circumstance.)

That seems to have been *generally* true of Ms. Kennedy. There's a rumor on the upper East side of NYC that she's "aloof" . Doesn't make her a war criminal; just means that she might not be as equipped to represent the interests of average NYers as someone who comes from a more typical background.

Don't know enough about the upbringings of the rest of the people you mention to comment productively on the comparison. Gore was a senator's and went to private school. I'm not sure that puts him in the same boat, psychologically, as the Kennedys. Kerry married money... suggesting he didn't have that much of his own. So, ditto re.his mind-set.

Everybody "can care about others." ( except some people in prisons/ psychiatric institutions) That bar's pretty low. We might look for a higher bar in a US Senator.